The Carnival cruise ship Elation. Photo by the Port of San Diego.
The project will mean cruise ships won’t need to run their diesel engines to power the ships while docked at the port, reducing the amount of air pollution generated along the shore.
The $7-million project should be completed by December but will allow only one cruise ship at a time to plug into the power system, according to port officials. The port serves between 150 and 200 cruise ships per year. Port officials hope to expand the system to power two ships at a time by 2017.